Digital Inclusion in Health and Care in Wales
The following are excerpts. The full document is available below.
Case study: Digital inclusion support for Patients Know Best
Patients Know Best is an online portal which gives patients instant access to their medical records. Patients can access up-to-date information on treatments, medication, allergies and more from any device. This information can be shared with different medical teams and carers. Patients can also access messages from clinicians, test results etc. Patients Know Best is being implemented in Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University (ABMU) Health Board (for patients with diabetes and with heart failure, extending to COPD and Parkinson’s) and Cardiff and Vale Health Board (for ENT patients).
Patients are invited to join Patients Know Best (PKB) by their clinician.
Although take up so far has been good, not all patients are joining. Some patients may not want access to their records; others may not have access to technology or their own email address. ABMU is now working with Digital Communities Wales to direct patients to libraries or other community resources where they can have access to a computer and support with setting up email etc. so they can join PKB if they wish to do so.10
Case study: Digital health in ABMU
ABMU was the first Health Board to offer free public Wi-Fi in a hospital and, since April 2018, has provided it in every acute and community hospital in the Health Board. There are up to 12,000 concurrent users at peak times. It was the first Health Board to offer patients a patient-controlled record (Patients Know Best) with integration into the national data architecture. For the first time in Wales patients will have access to their secondary care information and be able to share that securely with whoever they wish, as well as being able to message their clinical team for advice. ABMU is working with Digital Communities Wales to provide support to patients to use Patients Know Best and other online applications. Digitally excluded staff have been supported through their online training, broadening their basic digital skills capability which will improve their life opportunities.
